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K-39af, The Rat Killer

01-20-2007, 03:12 AM

just 2 jobs into my new k-39 auto feed with 5/16'' inner core cable, it marked up it's first kill

what a surprise i found as i went to a long time customer to clear a tub, shower and lav sink common stoppage. my first attempt was to snake from the 2'' shower drain. after 22' of the 25' cable, i didn't reach the stoppage. i took a quick peek under the house and determined that the lav sink was a closer run to hit the 3'' main. i removed the pop up stopper and ran the cable through the 1.25'' tailpiece. after approx. 15' i hit a hard stoppage. the machine bogged a little, the cable torqued up a little and i continued to feed the cable back and forth with the dual feed forward,(out)and backward (in) direction auto feed. this new design allows the motor to continue to spin the cable in a clockwise direction and the feed to controll the direction of advance or retreaval.

well as i continued to play the cable in and out. i broke through the stoppage. the water was going down in the tub and in the shower
at this point i worked the cable in this area to clean the line and then used the feed to pull the cable back into the drum. keep in mind that with this new design, the machine and cable are still rotating in a clockwise , forward direction. thus the cable still had a good hold on what i thought was a common hair stoppage.

to my surprise and customers i pulled out a wad of hair that didn't look like human hair. it was too fine and slick. i kidded with them and said it was a rat i then looked closer and determined it actually was a rat there was 1 claw still on the end of the auger, the tail, another claw and a section of skin/ hair was now in my gloves

the owner then told me that they had a pest issue 1 month ago. i was so surprised that i got a plastic bag from the owner and put the remains of the rat in the bag to show to my wife. she was not to happy even though i left it outside in the bag. my buddy, another plumber was very impressed. between the 2 of us, with 65 years of combined plumbing, neither of us had ever pulled up a rat. or at least 1 we could i.d.

i don't know if i was more excited to use my new snake, or show off my big catch

rick.

lets see this week's first. frozen pipes, snow, and rats in the pipe. all first for me in los angeles. and the week is not over yet 2 sewer inspections still to come on saturday maybe a real snake

how did you fix it, deep fat fried or rotisserie, is it true they taste like chicken, LOL.

when I worked in the wast treatment plant when in Montana a good number of years ago, we had things that came down the line we called sewer rats but they were not, animal,

Push sticks/blocks Save Fingers
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"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."
attributed to Samuel Johnson
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PUBLIC NOTICE: Due to recent budget cuts, the rising cost of electricity, gas, and oil...plus the current state of the economy............the light at the end of the tunnel, has been turned off.

Comment

Try talking with the guys that clean out storm sewers. They deal with rats all the time and now and then a live gator. Well in my area they do. More than once a guy will come out of a man hole screaming that a gator almost bit off his foot. There really are sewer rats and some of them are said to be about 20 pounds in size! You do not want to mess with such. The way they deal with them is to block off the sewers and either gas them, or a special team goes into the sewer with protective gear on and they use shotguns to blast them to bits. If you think I'm full of BS, call up the storm water management engineers of any larger city.

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i retrieved the moldering remains of a mongoose from a septic line that had had an open cleanout. it was covered with a 2x6 and had been dislodged. the mongoose must have gotten in the pipe and could't get out.

boy, did that one stink

steve

In the never ending struggle to keep the water flowing.... The Poo Poo Cowboy rides again!!!

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I dont think anyone would wanta see pic`s of the cat as that was a nasty mess...lol
I about lost it when I had to pull it off the cable. The bones were cracking as I unwound it off the cable.
I dont take pictures very often but I do have a few down at the shop that I`ll post up monday.

Comment

Not long ago when my yard drains backed up, I ended up blowing a dead squirrel out of a drain box using a backpack leaf blower rigged up to the discharge near the curb. This has me thinking that maybe I need to rig up something like a clothes dryer vent flapper so as to keep them along with other rodents out. I really thought the problem was with a leaf clog at first.

Time I hush up as this really has nothing to do with sewer snakes and what gets pulled back.

Comment

Not long ago when my yard drains backed up, I ended up blowing a dead squirrel out of a drain box using a backpack leaf blower rigged up to the discharge near the curb. This has me thinking that maybe I need to rig up something like a clothes dryer vent flapper so as to keep them along with other rodents out. I really thought the problem was with a leaf clog at first.

Time I hush up as this really has nothing to do with sewer snakes and what gets pulled back.

not sure if the dryer vent flapper will work. last year i had my own dryer vent and a customers dryer get a birds nets with eggs in it. both of them had the metal flapper/ damper. those birds were cleaver

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Out of curiousity, any body ever install building traps any more to keep the rats out?

i know that the county of los angeles required them. not sure if they still do the rat in this case had to come in from the 1.5'' roof vent.

the trap at the curb/ property line was a real hassel when you had to snake. most of the ones i eer came across never had a clean out riser. if it wasn't for a camera, i'd be lost trying to find and figure out the problem.